Pittsburgh - Growth & Taxes? (Upper St. Clair, St. Clair: real estate market, rent, house)

[guylocke]

Your taxes may be fairly high and you might be surprised about that.. but the cost of living in Pittsburgh is fairly amazing. I can take about 40 bucks and hit up Friday night till i'm falling down. In DC it would be about 100 to 150 bucks (I know, I've done it). You'll be surprised how much cheaper goods and services are and no tax on clothing. Your money will stretch SO far here despite your property tax, so although it might be something to be concerned about, don't let it discourage you. I have many friends who are recent graduates making no more than 40k a year and are living the high life in the city. They budget, but they're comfortable and love it.

The commute down Rt. 28 is almost effortless

This is absolutely true. Fox Chapel uses this route including many Westmoreland cities that are just across the river all along Rt. 28. Might be something to really look into.

[smuckerd]

Hopes
It looks like I can't get into those listings without paying. How did some of the Peter's township do for K-3, as my daughter will be going into 1st grade?Mcmurray is 4-6. Thank you again for the info.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by smuckerd

Hopes
It looks like I can't get into those listings without paying.

I don't pay to access the site. Try doing your own searches from the main page. http://www.psk12.com/rating/USindivp...year_2001.html

Originally Posted by smuckerd

How did some of the Peter's township do for K-3, as my daughter will be going into 1st grade?Mcmurray is 4-6. Thank you again for the info.

Pleasant Valley and Bower Hill rank the same as McMurray for county and state rankings. That's because the rankings are based on scores for an achievement test that's given in 5th grade. So all elementary schools in Peter's Township outrank all the other elementary schools in Washington County, and all elementary schools rank 49th out of 1811 elementary schools in the state.

[Katarina Witt]

The realtor is probably more reliable than my nephew. Apparently he was including that wage tax as well. But he did say $30K. I stand corrected. It is still a lot of money.

[guylocke]

Not that this is 100% accurate either, but an acquaintance of mine who lives in Shadyside in a $650 home says he pays $20,000 a year in property tax.

[kettlepot]

Originally Posted by smuckerd

The realtor also told me about a 3% (of income) wage tax for shadyside and anywhere in the city. It really adds up and makes the wallet lighter. I'm going to have to really crunch the numbers before we drag the family up there. Great opp. for my wife with CMU, but may not be the best for quality of life. We will see.

Just so I and every one is absolutely clear, the 3% (income) wage tax, does that apply ONLY to EARNED income (wages) or does it apply to UNEARNED income (interest, dividends, capital gains) and what about semi-earned income, (Pensions and IRA withdrawals)? Anyone know the answer to that? And is there some kind of standard deduction, say the first 10k is exempt? Or is it based off the Federal AGI?

And out of curiosity, are the governments in and around Pittsburgh aware of, and concerned about their bad property tax reputation?

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by kettlepot

Just so I and every one is absolutely clear, the 3% (income) wage tax, does that apply ONLY to EARNED income (wages) or does it apply to UNEARNED income (interest, dividends, capital gains) and what about semi-earned income, (Pensions and IRA withdrawals)? Anyone know the answer to that? And is there some kind of standard deduction, say the first 10k is exempt? Or is it based off the Federal AGI?

For local taxes, it's based off of the earned income from your W4. The state taxes all income except retirement income from pensions, etc.

Originally Posted by kettlepot

And out of curiosity, are the governments in and around Pittsburgh aware of, and concerned about their bad property tax reputation?

Pennsylvania is bringing gambling into the state to offset property taxes with revenue from gambling for the schools. We have one of the best school systems in the country---and that costs money. The only problem is that many of the school districts throughout the state are opting out of receiving monies from gambling. They want more control over their tax base because they don't trust that they'll get the money they need to run the schools.

Even with our tax structure, Pittsburgh is still an amazingly affordable place to live. We don't pay taxes on food or clothing purchases. We don't have personal property tax like Virginia. The housing is extremely affordable. I could go on and on.

[guylocke]

Even with our tax structure, Pittsburgh is still an amazingly affordable place to live. We don't pay taxes on food or clothing purchases. We don't have personal property tax like Virginia. The housing is extremely affordable. I could go on and on.

Agree. This is similar to what I said I said a few posts ago. So many articles and magazines have done rankings where Pittsburgh is usually on the very top for most affordable big city living in the entire country. The property tax is high, but that is surely something these journalists take into consideration and it doesn't seem to effect their decision. One quick example is the cost of a movie! Give or take 50 cents or so but it's usually about 8 bucks to see a movie here. I was paying 12 bucks a pop when I was in Seattle. A difference of 4 dollars certainly wasn't going to make or break me, but if you think about it that is 33% differece!

[Katarina Witt]

Pennsylvania is bringing gambling into the state to offset property taxes with revenue from gambling for the schools. We have one of the best school systems in the country---and that costs money.

On practically every city and state thread throughout the country, it is stated that the schools are at least among the best in the country, according to their boosters. I found this link on the Colorado forum. I find it interesting as it actually compares kids from different states taking the same standardized test (not that I am a big fan of standardized testing, mind you, but the results are, well, standardized).

http://www.uschamber.com/icw/reportcard/default

Some food for thought.

One reason school taxes are high is that Pennsylvania teachers are among the highest paid in the country. That is either good or bad, depending on your point of view.

[kettlepot]

Thanks all for answering my tax question, and I just read a very comprehensive answer in another post. While I appreciate that for most people if you have low sales taxes, and high property taxes it all comes out in the wash. But if you aren't much of a spender, but are still living in a house, then suddenly it doesn't balance out.

So can I ask one more question, are property taxes now so high that if the government wanted more revenue they would go to the income or sales tax next? Older folks, particularly, wouldn't want to be in a situation where they found that Property Taxes shot up again because that was the easiest tax to raise. And when it's "for the children" raising the millage rate for schools can be the easiest one to hike. However, you then find people with low retirement incomes having to pay a tax they don't have the income to pay simply because they own their home.